Denver's Tattered Cover Bookstore, currently in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, requested a delay in their reorganization hearing this past Friday to consider offers to purchase the 4-store chain. Considering the fact that the TC hasn't made a profit in years and owes 4 million dollars, money that their current reorganization plan calls for being repaid by 2027, it sounds like a sale of the iconic bookstore chain would be the best solution. The Tattered Cover was sold by longtime owner Joyce Meskis back in 2015, seen in the photograph above that I took of her speaking at her going away party, on the sales floor of the Colfax store. Joyce had a rare gift for running bookstores, and once she left, things started to go downhill. She sold the chain to Len Vlahos and Kristen Gilligan, whose only bookstore experience was limited to a very small store. When the pandemic hit in 2020, they sold the chain to Bended Page, LLC, a group of investors including, according to a Denver Post article at the time, "national bookselling and publishing experts." And what did these geniuses do? They put in charge someone with a law degree from Yale and an MBA from Harvard, but no experience whatsoever operating bookstores. No wonder the TC went into Chapter 11. If someone does purchase the Tattered Cover, let's hope they have lots of money and know what the hell they are doing. It might be their last chance.
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